Eric Clapton’s Custom Made Ferrari


When you’re Eric Clapton, it’s not just Fender you can ring up and have make you something with your name on it- Ferrari will take the call, too. So here we have the Ferrari SP12 EC, a one-off made especially for the former Cream axeman, based on the 458 Italia.Clapton has been a Ferrari person for decades, and in particular a fan of the 512 BB, of which he’s owned three. So, although his car is based on the 458 Italia, its styling is inspired by the 512 BB.

It’s the work of Pininfarina and the Centro Stile Ferrari, with Clapton guiding the process.


Its proportions give it away as a 458, but as you can see, the re-style is every bit the modern interpretation of the 512, most notably the slatted bonnet and re-profiled rear three-quarter section. Sadly it doesn’t have pop-up headlamps.

Clapton apparently wanted it to have a big V12, like the 512, but the 458’s architecture wouldn’t allow that, so it gets a bog standard 4.5-litre V8, for shame. Poor Eric.

Still, the guitarist called it “one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.” And this from the man who wrote the Layla riff.


It allegedly cost Clapton £3,000,000…because, in actual fact, pretty much anyone with the Benjamins can have Ferrari Special Projects make it a car. (As it is with Fender Custom Shop, which sort of rains on our introduction. Nobody cares.)